Sports Festival (SF) Race Start! part 1

A comfortably dim bar situated far from prying eyes. Its brick walls and reinforced doors protected the serenity and comfort of its guests. Red topped stools with little back bracers sat in a line at the bar counter, all comfortably worn. The wall of drinks towered, lit with a warm orange backlight, more for looks than for use. A jukebox slumped silently moping in the corner. At the far end of the bar, a television was standing at attention, ready to be used, unlike its jukebox counterpart. The remote perched on the counter's edge while the dark screen reflected the mostly empty bar. A flamboyantly dressed woman and a suitcase alone amongst the stools and booths in the dark reflection.

Lucy sat at the bar and swung her legs mindlessly while she rested her elbows on the counter. Little lazy twisters of boredom popped up around her head with a monotonous and sluggish ticking sound. Her rose tinted glasses did little to hide her bored and slightly annoyed expression. By her side, with a seat to himself, sat the guitar case that Monster inhabited. Lucy's hat sat atop it. The faint sounds of Monster taking a nap rumbled from within.

Kurogiri motionlessly stood behind the bar as he stared at the young lady he was supposed to be looking after. "Can I get you anything?" He prompted the silence in a desire to be useful.

Lucy's eyebrow twitched as frustration literally cast a bubble up by her head. "Could you not have just teleported Doc here?" She gestured to the table. Her movements conjured up a doodle of Garaki and a block vortex. She clapped them together and dispelled them.

"Dr. Garaki had certain errands to see to. I am certain he will arrive shortly, he's not known for tardiness after all." Kurogiri stated as he raised a hand to his vest. "But if it troubles you so, I could relay a message to him"

"It's just that he's really cutting it down to the wire. We're supposed to watch the UA sports festival together." Lucy gestured to the TV while figments of a stadium full of menacing heroes popped up beside it.

"Hmmm?" The suitcase growled as Monster started waking up. "Is it time for the game yet?"

Lucy checked her watch. Figments of numbers popped up around her head. "30 minutes till the speaker takes the stage."

"30 minutes till we get to see the heroes celebrate normal and heroic Quirks." Monster huffed grumpily in the bag.

Lucy smirked at the familiar rant they both knew by heart. Her boredom twisters spun away and disappeared as doodly figments of cartoonishly big headed heroes began to pop up around her. "Heh. Yeah. But this sports festival is special, this is All Might's class, and Tomura's killer is in it."

A life sized figment of Tomura appeared in the seat beside her. His form was drawn in roughly, but all the features were clear enough. He seemed grumpy and dismissive of everything around him. She could never imagine him looking happy, just gloomy and angry.

Kurogiri reached over and waved his hand through the Tomura drawing causing it to break, dispersing like mist. "Tomura will have his vengeance when he wakes up. I'm certain it will be high on his list."

Lucy looked over and saw her Tomura figment fading away. A shard of pain flared up behind her, a chain of triangular pieces of glass that ran from her nape to her tailbone. It weighed down on her and burnt a little red as she said, "Oh. Sorry about that… My thoughts are littering out again…"

"There's nothing to be sorry about." Kurogiri said with his comforting tone. "Your Quirk is as impressive as it is honest. I am sorry that the rest of the world can't see that."

The chain cooled down a little and retreated away from view. Lucy smiled a little, just a bit sad, "Yeah, that's why we're here after all. Thanks Kuri."

The bar room door jiggled as someone unlocked it.

Lucy perked up, little cracks of stress webbed out around her, each segment flashing a vision of what she thought could come through the door. Kirogiri's eyes flicked over to the door yet he didn't move a muscle. Monster remained silent in his bag.

Dr. Garaki stepped into the bar holding a grocery bag. He wiped some sweat from his wrinkled brow. "Whew. Sorry." He huffed. "I've been so busy lately. Just stopped by the store for some snacks and," he fished out some notepads and pencils, "study materials. So very few schools broadcast their upcoming heroes with such foolish bravado as UA."

Lucy smiled excitedly. After having been taken in, before she had finished her schooling, Dr. Garaki had to homeschool her. Something she picked up quickly with her active and hungry imagination.

Immediately her thoughts began to tumble out of her through her Quirk. Jotted lines of garbled text scribbled into the air around her reading nonsense like 'The fourth of apple purple'.

Monster reached out of his guitar case and took the bag from Garaki. "Busy with what?" He asked a little grumpily as he began to empty the bag onto the counter.

The old doctor took a seat beside them. He gave a nod to Kurogiri before turning back to Monster and Lucy, "Tomura's recovery was trickier than expected. However, he should be back to normal in a few more days."

Kurogiri poured Garaki a drink. It was just a soft cider, as alcohol wasn't good for his fragile health.

Garaki took it with a small "Thank you." Before returning his attention to Lucy and Monster. "As you may have known, Tomura was killed during our raid on UA nearly a month ago."

"I returned his severed hands for you." Monster tiredly interjected. "Not that there was much else left."

Lucy remembered vividly. Her memories of the event began to play on the TV beside the group.

The memory of that pink, monstrous girl with a hurricane of acid chased them down. She was yelling about how Lucy was wrong to go down this path, how it was a failure of her character.

"Yes well, you may also recall that All For One gave him a copy of super regeneration. There was a slight complication however." Garaki took a sip of his drink and leveled himself as he collected his thoughts. "Being only a set of hands, his body couldn't fully support the requirements for the regeneration process. I had to personally oversee his growth in one of the stasis tanks. Manually supply glucose and oxygen for what little energy production he could muster, then make sure that he was getting all the necessary components to begin reconstruction."

Figments of chemical structures popped up around Lucy's head as she imagined a fish tank with Tomura in it being fed sugar. "Hehe." She giggled.

Dr Garaki nodded at the figment. "You're not too far off conceptually."

He continued his mini lecture, "As Tomura's body began to regenerate, it had to rebuild his organs first. This is what was so difficult and what took so long. Super regeneration doesn't work for free and takes energy, but if the body cannot supply energy due to the damage it's undertaken, then no regeneration can occur."

Lucy snapped her fingers as a graph was drawn up. "Exponential growth curve! The more body he has, the more energy he can produce, the faster he heals!"

Garaki waved a little cheer, "Exactly! Super regeneration can regrow a nomu's missing arm in no time because the nomu has nearly limitless energy to supply. If it loses half its body, it can call upon its other half to supply regeneration in no time. But," The doctor got excited as he began to explain, "if you were only a set of hands with health as bad as Tomura's…"

"Slower regeneration." Lucy filled in. "More room for failure and starvation."

Garaki sighed. "Which is why I've been so tired lately. That boy never took care of himself, and now super regeneration is asking for energy he can't supply on his own. That means that I had to take care of everything else."

"Then…" Lucy became a little downcast. A shadow blocked over her eyes behind her glasses as her voice became hesitant and nervous. "Why hasn't Sensei healed properly."

The doctor fell silent for a moment before taking a slow, long breath. His voice was calm, yet grim, as he was discussing something a condition that could never truly be cured. A doomed topic that he had been working on for years, and all solutions were not looking good. "Your Sensei and I… you know how long we've lived. My Quirk, life force, extends one's life at the cost of their vitality. It causes us to grow old slower. It doesn't reverse the process, nor even stop it, just prolongs it. We're already so old that even with super regeneration… It's like trying to draw and erase a canvas over and over. The image becomes muddied, the canvas begins to degrade. Super regeneration has its limits, and one of those limits is vitality, something my Quirk spends to extend life span."

"Then why don't you-" Lucy asked nervously as she tried to throw a new idea in only to be cut off.

"Try combining super regeneration with another Quirk to create a Quirk that can rewind aging?" Garaki already knew what Lucy was going to ask. He sighed as he continued, "Super regeneration is… picky. It won't heal some things, such as mental afflictions, or our problem, aging. Aging could be considered a form of damage, as nervous tissue begins to degrade, genetic mutations such as cancer become more likely, mitochondrial oxidative inefficiencies, …" He began to list every form of aging he knew.

Lucy blinked as she became completely stumped. She had become completely lost by this point. Spirals of confusion and befuddlement spun around her head.

"Whatever it is." Monster huffed from within his bag as he opened the packet of chips with his long, bony hands. "I'm sure you'll figure it out." He pulled a chip through the case and into his space to eat.

"I do believe the sports festival will be starting soon." Kurogiri reminded the group as he set down glasses of ice for the drinks.

"Ah! It should be about time!" Garaki exclaimed as he tried to get comfortable at the bar with a notepad ready.

"Now remember Lucy." He said as she took up her own notepad. "We're not only here to see the Quirks of the upcoming heroes, but also to find the heir of All Might."

Mrs. Midoriya put her hands together as she went over everything she had brought to the couch.

Tissues, check. Tear buckets, check. Water and tea, check. Memory space to record her baby boys sports festival, check.

She was super nervous and had to keep calming herself down. Her son had finally grown into his Quirk, at eighteen, and was pursuing his dangerous dream. Taught by his dream hero All Might! A mother could only worry so much!

"Let's go Izuku." She whispered in cheer as she sat down and got ready to watch.

A man grunted as he collapsed into his couch, an ice pack clutched in his grasp. He pulled off his armor and shirt and winced at his new bruises.

He didn't live in a very nice place. He barely spent time here at all actually. It was a place for him to maintain his equipment and his body, for his crusade against false heroes was never ending.

He bit back a hiss as he placed an ice pack to his abdomen. "False hero scum."

His latest encounter had put up a hard fight. 'Ingenium was it? The crusade stops for no one, not even him.'

'Today's the sports festival. I'm stuck healing here.' He grimaced in pain as he reached for the remote. 'Let's see if this batch of new heroes is as corrupt as the last.' He mentally spat at the idea.

Mr. Tenikari fixed his shirt before swinging open his apartment door.

"AYYY!!" A chorus of greetings shouted off.

"Welcome on in everyone!" Mr. Tenikari waved his work friends in through the door. "The festival is about to start!"

"Got beers?" Manwell asked with a smile as he was the first through the door. He was a man of average height and appearance. No Quirk.

"HA!" Mr. Teniakri laughed as he slapped Manwell on the back. "Don't pull my leg like that! Of course I have beer!"

Tiamuth huffed a laugh as he stepped in with a bowed head to dodge the doorframe. "It has been too long my friend!" He was a large, burly man with a gallery of scars. A mutant with red reptilian features and two long horns that ran back from his forehead to behind him. Scars ran down his arms and back from a past he'd rather leave behind. In his claw-like hands was a big pot of meatballs.

"Indeed!" Mr. Tenikari cheered as he waved him in.

He squinted as he glared at the last guest. His teeth grit in disgust.

"Are you going to welcome me in Mr. Teniakri?" Lordra asked. She was a decently tall, slender woman with chestnut hair that hid her long pointed ears. Her Quirk, balance sense, allowed her to see and sense the stresses a structure was under. A lot of costs had been saved by her being able to see structural integrity.

Mr. Tenikari snorted as his facade broke into a chuckle. Then an uproarious laugh that came from his stomach. "Baw hahahaaa! Of course! Of course! Make yourself at home!"

"I can't believe your daughter got into UA." Manwell said with the nod of his head. He plopped down into the middle of the couch and kicked his feet up onto the coffee table.

"I won the bet." Tiamuth grinned as he set down his pot of meatballs.

"There was a bet?!" Mr. Tenikari's thick eyebrows rose high enough to see his eyes.

Lordra sighed as she took a chair away from the gaggle of idiots. "Yes, there was a bet."

Tiamuth's grin grew wider and more draconic and smug with Lordra's sigh. "She bet that Tanya would go into the business course at UA." He threw Lordra under the bus while taking a seat at the edge of the couch. The couch creaked under his immense weight. He shimmied into his corner in an attempt to take up less space.

Mr. Tenikari stared at Manwell in amazement. "What did you bet on?"

Manwell shrugged. "Hey, I bet she would come work with us. Couldn't blame a guy for wanting a few more hands on deck." He threw his hands up.

"You already know," Tiamuth's wide, gloating smile bared his rows of fangs, "I bet on her becoming a hero. That girl has too much fight in her and is too smart to be a villain."

"You guys had a bet." Mr. Tenikari looked around in bewilderment. "On my daughter."

Manwell tried to avoid the father's roaming stare by leaning back and trying to disappear behind Tiamuth's shoulder while the big guy merely grinned with his large, sharp teeth. Lordra kept her head down in her hand as she was disappointed and annoyed.

"Even Lordra was in on it?" Mr. Tenikari jabbed a thumb over at her. "Madam prim and proper herself."

"I can't deal with you idiots sober." She muttered as she got up to go get a drink.

Mr. Tenikari put his hands on his hips and declared, "And none of you thought to invite me?" He grinned.

Lordra looked behind her as she pulled a beer out of the fridge. "What?"

"HUhaha!" Tiamuth laughed as his grin broke into full on joy. "I KNEW IT!"

Manwell started lightly slapping Taimuth's arm. "Oh shut it you big lizard!" He shouted through his own smile.

Mr. Tenikari grabbed him and his friends some drinks before thudding onto his own side of the couch and passing them over.

"But Lordra though?" Mr. Tenikari shook his head in mock amazement. "I could never have imagined such behavior out of you."

She pulled her bottle down from her lips. "For the record, it was not my idea."

Manwell rolled his eyes and whispered, "Yet once the name Tanya was dropped, she hopped on immediately."

"Had such high hopes for my daughter, did ya?" Tenikari smirked before rolling his shoulder while his mood turned a little somber. "But, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want you to win this one."

"Oh?" Lordra asked as let her drink rest.

The guys were curious as well. Manwell leaned in wanting to know more while Taimatt raised a brow.

"You always knew how my daughter had a mind for things I didn't." Tenikari looked down at his beer. His posture slumped till his elbows rested on his knees.

"Well that ain't hard- ow!" Manwell taunted before yelping at Taimuth's elbow jab.

"Shut it." He growled under his breath.

Tenikari continued. "Laugh if you'd like, she's way smarter than me. Back when she was a little girl, and she was just in elementary school, I remember I received a report from the teacher. 'High marks in all subjects, shows an abnormally high academic intelligence, lacks interpersonal skills.' And that had always rung true her whole life."

He rubbed his thick brow as he continued. "It was back in middle school when she had revealed that she can do my taxes for me. Better than I ever could too. But that was also when the parent complaints started to come in. She had been threatening some of the other students and even getting into fights at school. You know how guys can be at that age, some of them needed… correcting. Well, she had taken that into her own hands once the teachers had ignored her complaints."

He smirked a little. "Not that I blame her. Some boys have to learn the hard way and I wouldn't want her being pushed around by anyone like that. Anyways, that had started her tendency for turning in reports to the school board about the teachers and trying to start lawsuits. Fights were always breaking out amongst the middle schoolers. It was hell. But… not for her though."

"I've been hearing about those scandals at the middle and high schools." Tiamuth rubbed at his jaw as he thought deeply about it. "The teachers are favoring turn over numbers and potential upcoming stars over behavioral and even educational duties."

Tenikari nodded his head. "Yeah… And you all know Tanya. She was caught in the crossfire, but they had failed to realize that she was the threat."

"That's why I bet on her being a hero." Tiamuth said with a nod as he leaned forward till his elbows rested on his legs. "She fought an entire school's worth of corruption, both adults and students alike, yet came out just fine. If that ain't hero material, I don't know what is. Like I said, she has too much fight in her to do nothing but she's too smart to be a villain."

"Yeah, I just wanted…" Mr. Tenikari was worried, and his voice slowed on his hesitation. He took a deep breath, "I just pray she'll be alright."

"Drink up Karl." Manwell said with a comforting tone as he lifted his own drink.

Tiamuth raised his drink. "Today, we watch Tanya deliver a beat down."

"To her path, and her choice." Lordra declared as she lifted her drink.

Karl Tenikari raised his drink, took a deep composing breath, and shouted, "To the greatest asswhooping UA's Ever Seen!"

"YAAAAY!!" The guys all cheered while Lordra threw her head back and laughed.

Tanya stood in the changing room at UA as she slid her workout jacket into position. The entirety of Class 1As girls were getting dressed out together.

"It's a shame we couldn't wear our costumes." Uraraka said with a hint of dejection as she pulled her shoes on. "It has some good support for my nausea."

Tanya was about to talk before Mina jumped in and cut her off. "You could have filled out a form ahead of time." She said happily.

"What did you ask for?" Tanya asked, partially amazed that Mina had already handled the support gear request form.

Mina pulled her shirt's collar to the side to show her bra strap. It was the same blue and purple design as her hero outfit. "Acid resistant athletic undergarments, or Arau for short." She grinned before sitting down and beginning to pull on her shoes.

Her pink shoes had holes in the bottom. "These are also acid resistant."

"Wow!" Uraraka cheered. "You're all geared up! But, why not the clothing?"

Mina grinned as she grabbed her jacket. "It actually is! It was a huge hassle to get them to make it for me in time, haha."

"Can't have you revealing yourself during the sports festival." Tanya nodded. 'She appears to be on top of things.' She mentally complimented.

Mina chuckled. "Yeah. It beats the melting accident when my Quirk came in."

Toru audibly smirked, "Heh, I couldn't imagine that being embarrassing."

Mina stuck her tongue out at the floating clothing. "Invisi-girl."

"Oh! I love it!" She threw a fist up in excitement. "I'll keep that in mind for a hero name!"

"Well at least it won't happen to you today." Tanya rolled her shoulder as she stood up and began to make her way out of the changing rooms.

The waiting room was a bland white box, with a stripe of purple that wrapped around the wall from the floor to waist height. The ceiling was a purple tileset, the floor a gray black. Four white, hard edged tables with cheap folding chairs lined the room. Big, dark blue lockers stood around the room.

Tanya took a head seat at a table. Her 'team' sat around her. She was focused on the game ahead and not focused on the room.

To her left, Bakugo kept a calmer scowl than usual. His eyebrows furrowed as he relaxed in his chair, an arm tucked over the backrest.

To her right, Mina started leaning back in her chair. Her hands kept out in front of her for balance. "Ooh." She hummed as she kept balance, a smile crept onto her face.

And further down past Mina, Sato took a deep breath as he kept his hands out on the table. Dozens of worried thoughts jumped into his head and had to be forced out one at a time.

Around the room, the students were getting their heads in the game with their own rituals. Some chatted and tried to keep the worry at bay, others sat in silence.

Sitting with Jiro and Kaminari, Momo ate a little box of petit fours, little rich cakes. For once she took little enjoyment in them, the flavor being lost in the oncoming wave of pressure.

"Do we have any gameplan?" Sato asked to break the ice with Tanya. He had a weak, brittle smile on his big lips. 'She always seems to have an idea.'

"Are we talking plans now?" Mina asked as she let her chair fall forward.

Tanya bit her lip before leaning forward and talking to her table. "The first round is likely going to open up as a qualifier. Every year they have a larger student body than the audience could keep track of, so they have to sort."

Bakugo lifted an eyebrow at this but kept his silence. 'What use is scheming this?'

"It's likely that they'll look to disqualify everyone but the hero course students, as having untrained students in the later rounds would be disinteresting to audiences." Tanya put her hands together as the generals of her past life would have. A smile crept more and more onto her face.

"Don't audiences love a good underdog though?" Sato asked wearily. His question held a dual purpose. 'It'll be hard to be liked or picked up by agencies later with Midoriya… doing what I can but flashier.'

"Underdogs are good for the masses looking for entertainment." Tanya said as she had wished this could be a simpler display, but international television could suffice. "But UA Academy is not catering to them, this festival is really for the agencies watching. All the spectacle and show is just for profit returns." Tanya pointed out and dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand.

As Sato shrunk back, slightly saddened, Mina eagerly pressed her own thoughts. She nearly bounced out of her chair "That would mean only a few more spots than the two classes!" Her eyes looked up as she took count, "So… just over forty!"

Tanya nodded. "We don't need to know how many, just that information makes this easier. The next game after the qualifiers will likely be a team game to bunch up the forty hero students into easily watchable groups. I'd look forward to having you all on my team."

Bakugo spat at the idea as he kept his relaxed posture. "Scheming a team up?! Fuck, you sound like Deku right now. No, I'm winning this on my own."

"We're all friends here, and yeah, we'll compete against each other at some point but that won't be every round." Mina tried to persuade him with her big grin.

"Like hell I'll be Angel Wings lap dog!" He slapped the table. The others beyond the team jumped before glancing over at him.

Sato held his hands up nervously as he tried to reason with Bakugo. "But you're not. I thought we agree-"

"Our little deal was that you extras cover the shit I don't want." Bakugo shot up, his chair scraped back with an awful sound. He pounded his finger against the table as if stabbing at an invisible document. "I want to win this, indisputably! And that includes over all of you!"

"Does this not constitute fairplay?" Tanya's wings twitched in anger as her lip curled up to the side. She didn't want to lose one of her teammates before the games had even begun. "All of the players, all of us, are allowed to scheme as we see fit." She dragged his term with venom as she gestured to the class.

"Ha." Bakugo huffed. "We're all competition! That means you too Angel Wings." He turned his back on the table.

Tanya stood up, her wings unfurled behind her as her temper rose. 'I will speak to him in the only language he understands, aggression!'

"And what does that mean?!" She barked back. "What do you have to prove beyond winning?!"

Mina watched in awe, her head turning back and forth. 'Look at them go!' She mentally cheered.

Sato shrunk back a little more. He was already feeling small from the idea of having to go up against Midoriya, and now his friends had begun to fight again.

"If I team up with you, that means that I am not the best here. No, that would make it you." Bakugo growled as he turned back and pointed at her. "Even if I win first place, it will be off of your plans, your coattails. I agreed to be in this little group to cover shit I don't want to do, but this is exactly what I want."

Tanya's temper flash froze. Her snarl dropped as she went cold and focused. Her wings settled down and folded back up behind her as she glared at him like he was nothing more than a battle report on her desk. "I understand. But what will that mean if you don't win? That you would rather lose alone than win together?"

Bakugo grinned a wicked smirk that bared his teeth. He felt the challenge she had issued him. "I will win Angel Wings. Even if that means going through you and your shit team of extras."

"Oh ho! It's on!" Mina grinned as she leapt to her feet and darted to Tanya's side. "I want in on this!"

Sato scratched at his cheek. There was no blush, only guilt and fear. "Whatever…" He gulped down his hesitation. "Whatever gets me the best chance at proving myself over Midoriya…"

Bakugo turned his head around with a cocky smile. 'Diabetes, that is the first thing out of your big mouth today that made any sense.'

"Oh?" Mina asked as she stepped away from Tanya. She became a little concerned over Sato's downtrodden tone. 'I hope he'll tell us what's wrong…'

Tanya smiled calmly as she retook her seat. Her wings tucked over the back of her chair once more like a high throne of white feathers. "I assure you Sato, stick with me, and you'll get your chance."

Sato lowered his hands down into his lap. "It's just… He's so strong, and that's all I have to offer… He blew me away during our indoor training with All Might. I can't shake the feeling he's only going to get stronger."

Tanya grinned. "If you want to feel stronger than him, then win where he does not. Beat him."

Midoriya, who stood in the middle of the room beside his seated friend Uraraka, could feel an overwhelming premonition coming from across the room. He tried to breathe it out. His skin crawled and shivered under the cold glares of Tanya and Todoroki. For once, Bakugo was not focused on him.

There was a new set of eyes. A brown, soft set, full of desperation. It was only for a moment that Midoriya saw his glance. They met eyes and Midoriya was left with more questions than answers.

The UA sports festival arena was jam packed. Its massive colosseum walls rumbled with anticipation and excitement. Seats were filled to the brim with hundreds of eager viewers. Rows and rows of heroes, sidekicks, and civilians were crowded on top of each other to watch the students compete.

Present Mic began casting."HEY-!"

"YEEEAAAHHHHHH!!!" The crowd roared immediately.

"EVERYBODY!" Mic continued his opening, "HEROES! FANS! MASS MEDIA! THE EVENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! WHERE THE AMBITIOUS YOUTH BATTLE IT OUT, THE U! A! SPORTS FESTIVAL!!" His voice nearly peaked his microphone.

Aizawa recoiled away as Mic went over the top and his ear rang. "Do you really need that microphone?" He grumbled.